Valet’s got a wandering eye, methinks.

Click on the image above to view larger.

As I often do, the other day I was cruising Flickr, looking for some cool Fort Worth related photos when I stumbled upon John Ward’s amazing aerial photos of downtown Fort Worth. I like the aerial photography, so I decided to check out Ward’s website thinking he might be a pilot or has a buddy with a plane. Further amazement ensued when I discovered that Ward uses a home-built remote control plane to do his work. I love that American ingenuity!

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HDR - High Dynamic Range - Photography involves a bit more work than just aiming and pressing the shutter button. For the uninitiated, HDR photography is the technique of taking multiple photos of a subject with different exposures (allowing different amounts of light onto the camera’s sensor), then blending those separate exposures with a computer to get one photo with a much higher range of definition in light and shadow than is possible with a single photo. A camera can’t see as wide a range of light at once as the human eye - so, if done realistically, these blended exposures can get photography closer to what the eye sees. In effect, you’re making areas of the photo that would otherwise be under or over exposed look correct. You can also go really nuts and make very unreal looking images, but I’ve gone for realism.

It can be a little tricky - significant moving objects tend to fluster the HDR blending software, and a tripod is pretty much essential, since each exposure must be from an identical angle and position for the technique to work.

Here are seven HDR photos I’ve taken in downtown Fort Worth. All were taken with my Canon PowerShot G9, and all are the result of three exposures blended in a piece of software called Photomatix Pro. Click on each for a bigger view.

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Ever imagine what it looks like from the cockpit of a passenger jet landing and taking off from DFW? The Airliner blog has the videos, Captain.

No guarantees this is exactly legal or even moral, but this here blog has links to bootleg recordings of Jimi Hendrix at the Memorial Auditorium in Dallas on Feb 16, 1968 and the Will Rogers Auditorium here in Fort Worth on Feb 17, 1968. Tom Huckabee talked at length about Hendrix at Will Rogers in our comments a few months back. I wonder if there was ‘l’amore’ in the bushes that night?

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Last Friday’s Modern ‘Til Midnight went off well, as always. Steph and I worked our way over a little after 7:30, which meant we got there just in time to enjoy the musical stylings of The Theater Fire. Having never heard these guys before, I must say I enjoyed their set very much. Their music is more or less unclassifiable, blending a wide variety of elements and instruments (mariachi horns, accordion, mandolin, etc.). They pretty much rock. I grabbed both their albums off iTunes the next day. (The dancing cowboy hippies that accompanied their set were entertaining, as well.)

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I snapped these photos from my loft last night as the big thunderstorm rolled into downtown and sent Main Street Arts Festival patrons scurrying for the nearest retail space. Even managed to get the last gasp of a lightning bolt in that last photo. Also got a couple of photos showing off the hail that fell during the middle of it all.

Thought the world might like to see them. Click each one for a bigger view.

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That’s right - it’s time for another Arts Goggle! For the uninitiated, Arts Goggle is a festival of art, live music, and food & drink that happens a couple of times a year in Fort Worth’s Near Southside. The happenings are centered around Magnolia Avenue, with goings-on also occuring on 8th Avenue and other streets around the district. It’s a lively pedestrian-oriented event that always guarantees a great time and plenty of awesome art, photography, sculpture, and music.

Yours truly will once again be exhibiting my urban Fort Worth photography. I’ll have photos for sale, if you’re so inclined, or just to look at. It’ll be fun, as always. I’m very excited, because I’m going to be in a higher profile location than in previous Arts Goggles. Here’s a hint…

Yep, that’s right - I’ll be exhibiting photos at Panther City Bicycles, right on Magnolia! Heck yeah! So, make sure to attend Arts Goggle this Friday, March 28. The event runs from 5:00 PM to 10:00 PM, and there will be art, sculpture, and music aplenty. A great time for all ages. Make sure to stop by Panther City Bicycles and visit yours truly/buy some photography/talk about urban development. I always love chatting with fans of West and Clear and Fort Worthology.

For more info, check out Fort Worth South’s site.